We have always been full of birthday celebrations at Willow House at the end of the school year. For some reason, we traditionally have half of our students born in the summer months. While it would be more prudent to celebrate half birthdays for them, we seem to spend most of May fitting in all the celebrations.

For Fritz...Sweet and kind. Lover of nature and hunter and gatherer of all things outdoors, I made for him this darling little gnome doll adorned with a mushroom.

For Lily...soft and cuddly, a knit bunny was just the right gift for her. I also crocheted a little pouch so she could carry her bunny around her neck. I love that she shared with me later all the little adventures she has had with her little softie.

For Lilah...such a little princess. I made for her a little peg flower girl doll. Also with a crocheted pouch for carrying.

For Oliver...our grounded, peaceful and quiet little boy. He just needed a knit gnome doll.

For sweet William. Our boy who sees the world in letters and numbers. Always first to point out the words he cannot yet read. I made for him a little birthday prince peg doll...with a crocheted pouch. On the pouch I stitched a "W" and on the shirt a "4". How appropriate that William would show up at his celebration honoring his fourth birthday by wearing a "4" on his shirt. That boy just makes me smile.

As I became overwhelmed by all the creating my teaching partner helped out by making these sweet pocket dolls. One for Eloise (I just had to crochet her a pouch). And one for Lulu.

Sadly, not photographed (just not enough time!!) were the adorable needle-felted dragons for Amelia, Sidney and Emre.

For the Mother's Day gifts at the preschool this year, I revisted a craft we did three years ago (see here). Refrigerator magnets are always useful and I think the children's creations turned out beautifully! Each one as unique as the child. I'm sure their mother's loved them.

As I was already in Spain when we celebrated Mother's Day here in the states, I came home to find these two lovely cards waiting for me.

How about that? "Universe's Greatest Mom!" and Julen's card and acorn gift came with a special story that I could never retell with as much detail and enthusiam as he did.

Trying to get back on track. Once I lose my posting rhythm, it inevitably happens. Also, I've just been so crazy-busy...like everyone, right? Well, here's what's been going on.

One of my beautiful boys had a birthday. Nine. So hard to believe. All he wanted were highlights(?)!!!.

My other beautiful boy has graduated out of my preschool. Gulp. I love that he can just go with it..."I'm both happy and sad Mama. Happy to be grown up and go to Kindergarten, but sad that I will miss going to Willow House with you everyday." He has no idea how this tears at my heart.

Mid-May I went to Europe for a work trip. I love this jaunt back into my previous life when I traveled for work. I get to spend precious time with some really great people who I have worked with for many years. It was had saying good-bye this time...I do miss them so.

I have a bit of a backlog of preschool posts that I will catch up on this week. All of our end-of-year projects and birthday celebrations that I've yet to share here.

For now I just want to put a little plug in for some of the camps we are offering at our preschool this summer starting next Monday. I will be teaching all the camps in June which are...

My partner will be teaching Music, Toy Making, Cooking and Fairy Tale Camps in the month of July. If you happen to live in the Twin Cities and have preschool age children I welcome you to join us for these one week creative camps. For more information check out our website here.

I've been away. On Sunday I returned from an eleven day work trip to Europe and I'm still recovering (more on that later).

Home with just five days left of preschool until September, I started to feel the sadness of another year coming to an end. We wrote our goodbye cards to the children (which look much like those from the beginning) and I can do nothing to hold back the tears.

Today we said our goodbyes to the Tuesday/Thursday class. Seven of them are on their way to Kindergarten, one of which is my Julen. We opened the preschool when Julen was just a baby, so it's hard to imagine Willow House without him. He truly grew up there. With so many wonderful memories I will miss sharing our school days there together.

As we made a circle at the end of our day to say our good-bye verse together one last time, I was grateful that the children were able to say it on their own as after the first sentence both my teaching partner and I got so choked up we lost our voice.

Be real in your heart

Be thankful for all you have

Be shining where you are

Until we meet again

To answer my own question from a year ago, I guess it never gets easier.

For today's Mosaic Monday I thought I'd post some of my favorite Etsy finds. Like many of you I fully support all of you artists and love to buy some of the beautiful handmade creations that come out of your homes. Below are links to the above artists' shops. Please link over and take a look. (All photo credits belong to the individual shop owners)

I also want to encourage anyone reading this who also likes to support artists to take a peek at this video of a dear friend of mine who I've know since high school. He is trying to produce a new music album and needs help raising money to do so. The best part is, with just about any contribution, you get a gift (a really nice gift) in return. For more details click on this link. If nothing else, watch the video...it is very quirky and funny.

Also...Marce just published a children's book that he wrote and illustrated called Everyone Sleeps. Here's the promo video.

I've been quiet here this past week. There is a post that weighs heavy on my mind that I can't seem to write, yet it stops me from moving forward on other posts...does that ever happen to you?

Maybe tomorrow...

...but for today...

Here's a project we did at the preschool last month. I've been getting inquiries about what these were for. I crocheted twenty little baskets with long handles for hanging out of hemp cord for this project. The kids each chose a little basket to fill with nest building materials for the birds. I did this project once before at the preschool (wow! four years ago already!), click here for the details. As we've had quite a lot of snow so late in spring, I thought it would be a great idea to give the birds a little help. We talked about why birds build nests and what they use to make them and why it would be important for the nests to be filled with soft materials.

I try to trick the kids by adding a tray of pincones and shells to the mix, but I didn't fool anyone, they are all so smart and know they wouldn't make a very soft bed.

I love the flurry of excitment as the children eagerly fill their little baskets.

Some of them looked so fancy in the end several parents mentioned they couldn't stand to hang them outside and wanted to hang them in their homes.

Julen placed his on these branches outside his bedroom window and it's been such a joy watching the birds fly away with new findings. Watching the bits of yarn fly up to the nests in the gutters was especially thrilling...we're planning to climb up there and take a peek once the nests have been vacated.